(After The Past in the Present)
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I don't own Bones.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooo
It was midnight and Booth was still awake. He lay in bed and stared at the dark ceiling above him worrying about Brennan and their baby. It had been thirty days since she'd driven away from the church and he still couldn't believe that had happened.
The sound of his phone ringing startled him and he flailed for his phone. Once he had it in his hand he answered it. "What!"
Silence caused Booth's irritation to rise. "Say something or I'm going to hang up." Still there was only silence and Booth was not in the mood for prank calls. "Asshole." Ending the call, he checked to see what the number was that the caller had used, but he didn't recognize it. "Jackass." His mood worse than ever, he tossed the phone on the nightstand, turned over onto his stomach and punched his pillow. Resting his head down on the pummeled pillow he stared at the bathroom door and hoped his family was safe.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooo
Another night and Booth was home alone drinking a beer and trying to watch a movie. Not even sure what exactly he was watching, he gamely tried to get interested in it. The phone called for his attention and Booth grabbed it up from the coffee table. "It's midnight. What the hell do you want?"
No one spoke and Booth was filled with fury. "Call me one more time you asshole and so help me God . . . quit calling me." He ended the call and glared at the Recents list on his phone to check on the number. Once more he didn't recognize it and almost blocked it. For a reason he couldn't quite explain he didn't and turned off his phone. "Probably some kid getting his jollies waking up people."
With no hope of getting a good night's sleep, he turned off the television, the lamp next to the couch and sat there in the dark. He hoped whoever the FBI had assigned to watch his house was as uncomfortable as he was.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooo
It was the weekend and he was having a bad Saturday night. It was midnight and he couldn't sleep. He had heard about a tornado in Ohio and he was worried about Brennan and Christine being caught up in it. He knew the odds were really high that they were there, but since he didn't know where they were, it made him feel sick with worry.
His phone rang. Glumly he answered the phone with his eyes riveted on The Weather Channel. "What?"
The silence was deafening, so Booth knew his crank caller was back. "There was a tornado out near Cleveland this afternoon . . . I don't know if my wife and baby are there and I'm worried. They're probably safe, but how would I know? I miss them." He heard the call end and grimly he laughed. "That'll teach you for calling me, Asshole."
Oooooooooooooooooooooooo
The next night his phone rang at midnight waking him from a fitful sleep. His hand found his phone on the nightstand and he answered. "It's midnight."
No sound on the other end and he knew his crank caller was there once more. "So anyway, I figure if my wife and baby were in the tornado and they got hurt or killed, it would have been mentioned on the news. They said no fatalities so I know they're safe . . . She's not really my wife, but I call her that because it sounds better than mate which is what she calls me . . . Of course she doesn't know I call her my wife. She might get mad at me if she did, but the hell with it. If she doesn't like it, she can come back home and yell at me about it." The call ended and he knew the caller was gone. "Call me again, idiot. I got more."
Oooooooooooooooooooooooo
A few days passed and Booth had managed to sleep better than he normally did. He was still a very unhappy man, but he wasn't exhausted which seemed to make his depression seem less prominent. The Phillies in LA, he was up late watching the game when his phone rang. Booth glanced at the clock and wasn't surprised to see it was midnight as he accepted the call. "I hope Bones . . . that's my wife . . . I hope she's eating properly and getting enough sleep. She's a workaholic. Used to be she'd work twelve hours without eating. Like to drove me nuts when I found out she was doing that. I had to make sure she ate, because no one else seemed to give a shit. That was before we became a couple. She's pretty good about eating now. I just don't want her to fall back on old habits . . . I miss her and my baby. They've been gone so long . . . She should have taken me with her. This not knowing where she is and if she and Christine are okay . . . I don't know . . . I just . . . I just want them back. I want them back."
The call ended and Booth shook his head. "You're a glutton for punishment that's for sure."
Oooooooooooooooooooooooo
Another night and for once he was sound asleep when the phone rang. Groggily, he reached for his phone and answered it. "Booth."
Like most of his midnight calls, there was no sound on the other end.
"I wish you hadn't called me. I was dreaming about my Bones. We were . . . well we were making love and she was giggling because we were um . . . most people have never heard her giggle before. She's got a husky sexy kind of a laugh, but sometimes she has this cute giggle and it just makes me want to do whatever I did to cause it over and over. A lot of people think she's cold, but underneath it all, she's filled with love and compassion. She cares a lot about the important things, but she hides it most of the time. I think she does that to protect herself. She . . ."
The call ended abruptly and Booth placed his phone back on the nightstand. "You don't like the conversation, don't call me asshole."
Oooooooooooooooooooooooo
Booth was disappointed that the phone calls at midnight stopped. He had been sleeping better since they'd started and he knew it was because he was using those calls to get things off of his chest. A week went by and he was up late reading one of Brennan's books. He had a dictionary open next to the book, so he could look up words that were unfamiliar to him. The phone rang and Booth realized that it was midnight. "Booth."
Since no one answered, Booth closed the book and talked. "I couldn't sleep tonight. Since I'm working a desk job and not allowed to take any cases I'm just so bored. I know they have some cases open that I could help with, but God forbid they let me work them. Those mother fuckers are cutting off their noses to spite their faces. If I ever get my job back, I'm going to have to go back over those cases and raise hell with some of the agents. Some of them aren't following protocol. When Caroline finds out . . . yeah, if she gets her job back then God help those idiots . . . anyway, I repainted the guest bathroom downstairs. When we painted it, Bones liked a paint color she called sea green. I think it's a bilious color and I finally changed the color to something I like."
Booth sipped some of the beer from the bottle sitting next to the dictionary. "Bilious means I want to throw up when I see it. Don't get me wrong, she's got great taste, but even someone like her can make a mistake. She'll probably complain when she gets home, but that's okay. I won't mind."
The call ended and Booth laughed. "I hope you're an FBI Agent. If Caroline comes back and she has to try cases that are being screwed up by you idiots . . . well don't come crying to me about it."
Oooooooooooooooooooooooo
A week passed and Booth was once more awakened by his midnight caller. "So my little girl is probably talking now. I wonder if she remembers me. I hope she does. I'm . . . I really miss her and my Bones . . . I . . . anyway, I bet her first word was Daddy or maybe Mommy since I'm not there with her. Of course her first word could be tibia or femur. She's a smart kid, just like her Dad."
Booth sighed. "I missed a bunch of firsts with my son Parker. I never lived with him, so I missed out on his first words and the first time he walked and I probably won't get to see my baby girl's first whatever's either. I guess I'm not that great of a father . . . I've always tried to be a good Dad, but . . . anyway, the Phillies won tonight, so I guess that's a plus in my column."
He realized that the call had ended. "I hope you get to go home every night and see your kid and mate or spouse or whatever."
Oooooooooooooooooooooooo
Alone, Booth sat in the living room and stared at the fireplace. He was lonely and bored and afraid that it would always be like that. It had been a week since his last midnight call and he was beginning to think that caller had abandoned him just like Brennan had. No sooner had those thoughts formed and the phone rang. Midnight. "It's Booth."
Silence his answer, Booth smiled. "You ever have one of those days where things just fall into place? I had one of those days. I found out where an enemy of mine is working and like the son of a bitch that I am, I went over there and put the fear of God into him. Don't worry, I didn't touch the mother fucker. I just looked at him and that's all it took. Of course he complained to my supervisor, but I don't give a shit. He was at the library and I have a right to go to the library."
His laugh low and menacing, Booth nodded his head. "People seem to forget who and what I am. I'm a boy born on the wrong side of the tracks in Philly. I was taught how to be tough by my old man and the Army taught me to give no quarter when necessary. Not very many people really know who I am and what I'm capable of. They should, but they really don't . . . well except for Bones. She knows. She knows me and she understands me. She tells me I'm a good man all the time, but she and I both know that's not true. She just tells me I'm a good man to help me out when I'm worried I've pushed something too far and I do push things really far sometimes. It doesn't matter if I'm a good man as long as I do the right thing and I don't piss off God. Anyway, I had a good day."
Oooooooooooooooooooooooo
Brennan and Christine were home and he wasn't alone anymore. Things were tense between them, but he didn't care. His Bones and Christine were home and he was happy. He didn't get any more midnight phone calls from the silent caller, but that was alright. He was sure that they had just been calls from one of the FBI Agents assigned to check up on him. At first, the calls had been an irritation to him, but later he had felt they allowed him to connect to Brennan by being able to talk about her. He'd been under surveillance while Brennan had been gone and he'd stayed away from his friends to keep the FBI off of their backs. Brennan was home now and he wasn't alone anymore. He could sleep because he knew his family was safe. He never thought he'd be grateful to a crank caller, but sometimes life was weird like that.
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